Relabeling the Revolutionary Guard

The United States has decided to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country's 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a "specially designated global terrorist," according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group's business operations and finances.

The Bush administration has chosen to move against the Revolutionary Guard Corps because of what U.S. officials have described as its growing involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as its support for extremists throughout the Middle East, the sources said. The decision follows congressional pressure on the administration to toughen its stance against Tehran, as well as U.S. frustration with the ineffectiveness of U.N. resolutions against Iran's nuclear program, officials said.

-The Washington Post

I found the article through a link at Hot Air.

For a lot of reasons, it comes as no surprise. Robin Wright, who’s responsible for tonight’s scoop, reported five days ago that hawks had regained the momentum within the administration on all things Iran so a new escalation wasn’t unexpected. And in fact, this is just a logical next step from what’s been happening for six months. The two rounds of UN sanctions on Iran for noncompliance on its enrichment program specifically targeted the assets of the Guard’s top commanders; a parallel track of unilateral U.S. sanctions since January (around the same time Bush informally declared war on the regime) has been aimed at squeezing foreign financial institutions who deal with Iran. Formally designating the entire Guard a terrorist group will, I’m guessing, let the feds reach far beyond the commanders and squeeze even harder. Revisit this WaPo piece from April, also written by Wright, and marvel at the massive power they now enjoy within Iran under Ahmadinejad, himself a veteran of the group. Given their influence, declaring them a “specially designated global terrorist” is tantamount to applying that label to the Iranian government as a whole

Wherever you stand on this issue, I think it can be agreed that this is something one ought to keep their eyes on. Next to maybe the Saudis, the Iranians are the biggest known financiers of terrorist activities in the Middle East and abroad. Interfering with that is a necessity, though I don't exactly expect them to take it quietly.

Time will tell.

UPDATE: Here's the article at Wikinews